I’m What You Call a Special Brand of Stupid

It’s really true. That’s the first thing you should know about me.

When it comes to music, I can do just about anything. I can write just about anything. I can recount just about any moment in US history or tell you just about anything you would ever want to know about the Royal Family.

But when it comes to multiplying two numbers I’m completely lost. Half the time I can’t tell north from south and according to just about everyone I have no common sense.

And apparently that makes me stupid.

Let me tell you, this is a concept that has never really made sense for me. Why is someone stupid because their brain works differently?

Let me explain it simply. I like things that are straight-forward, but beautiful and ugly in equal measure. Math is just one, big, messy puzzle, that requires you to think within the confines of a box. There is nothing beautiful about it. It is the definition of cold and jagged. I mean, just look at a triangle and ask yourself if you could be friends with it. Math is the school subject equivalent of, like, Ben Stine. There ain’t no way.

Music, English and history are just so appealing. That’s really all there is to it. There are guidelines and expectations, but when you work outside of the box, it’s celebrated not scolded, which I think is the big difference. I like to think that everybody can make sense of things in different ways. It doesn’t make them stupid. It makes them unique.

It is super fun, though, when I show someone a choral arrangement that I wrote or I tell someone that I actually finished reading Les Miserables in just under two weeks and they look at me with the biggest “WTF” expression because they thought I was stupid. I take great pleasure in the fact that I now get to show people that I’m not dumb, I’m just unconventional.

So, yes. I am a senior in high school who doesn’t understand elementary level math, but ask me my opinion on politics, new books, or the latest music trends, and chances are, I can blow your socks off. Everyone has their struggles. It doesn’t make them stupid. I promise.